Chemistry Department, Florida State University

Experiment 10 Silly Putty and Slime

Introduction/Background
In 1943 James Wright, an engineer, was attempting to create a synthetic rubber. He was unable to achieve this and put what he instead created (later to be called silly putty) on the shelf as a failure. A few years later, a salesman for the Dow Corning Corporation was using the putty to entertain some customers. One of his customers became intrigued with the putty and saw that it had potential as a new toy. In 1957, after being endorsed on the "Howdy Doody Show," silly putty became a toy craze. Silly putty even went into space on the Apollo 8 mission.

Key Concepts
The word polymer comes from the Greek, polumeres, which means having many parts. Polymers are big molecules and are made up of repeating units called monomers. These monomers are joined together, in a line, like beads on a string. Most plastics are made of polymers. Examples of polymers are polyethylene (plastic bags), polystyrene (white plastic that covers soft drink cups), and polyacrylamide (tough plastic that compact discs are made of). Even paper is made of cellulose, which a biological polymer. In polymers, monomer bonds are connected by two separate chains by covalent bonds. These bonds are called cross-links. The more cross-links there are in a polymer, the more rigid a plastic it will be.
The polymers in silly putty and slime have covalent bonds within the molecules, but hydrogen bonds between the molecules. The hydrogen bonds are easily broken. When small amounts of stress are slowly applied to the putty/slime, only a few bonds are broken and the putty/slime "flows". When larger amounts of stress are applied quickly, there are many hydrogen bonds that break, causing the putty/slime to break or tear.

the spaceshuttle

Glossary

Synthetic = of, relating to, or produced by chemical or biochemical synthesis ;especially :produced artificially.

Polymer = a chemical compound or mixture of compounds formed by polymerization and consisting essentially of repeating structural units.

Monomer = a chemical compound that can undergo polymerization.

Cellulose = a polysaccharide (C₆H₁₀O₅)_x of glucose units that constitutes the chief part of the cell walls of plants, occurs naturally in such fibrous products as cotton and kapok, and is the raw material of many manufactured goods (as paper, rayon, and cellophane).

Related Materials

Silly Putty (http://www.sillyputty.com)
Polystyrene (http://www.pslc.ws/macrog/kidsmac/polysty.htm)
Polyethylene (http://www.pslc.ws/macrog/kidsmac/polyeth.htm)
Polyacrylamide (http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/acrylate.htm#nit)